Tim Dowling: could the new dog’s tricks make her into a star?

Two women I meet on our walk are way more interested in Jean than me – and insist she’ll clean up if we enter her in the local dog show It’s a Saturday morning and I’m walking the dog on a vast bit of scrubland.

The path in front of me is parched and deserted. Up ahead, the dog turns the corner at a patch of brambles, and I hear the excited voices of two women. My immediate reaction is one of alarm; I whistle, but the dog doesn’t reappear. The voices rise. Only when I turn the corner myself do I see that…